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Blasphemy case: Briton in Pakistan sentenced to death

A court in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi has sentenced a 65-year-old British man to death after convicting him of blasphemy.

Mohammad Asghar was arrested in 2010 after writing letters to various people claiming to be a prophet, reports say.

His lawyers argued for leniency saying he has a history of mental illness, but this was rejected by a medical panel.

Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws carry a potential death sentence for anyone deemed to have insulted Islam.

Several recent cases have prompted international concern about the application of these laws.

Mr Asghar, who is believed to have family in Scotland, was accused of writing letters to police officers claiming to be a prophet. He is thought to have lived in Pakistan for several years.

His lawyer told the BBC's Saba Eitizaz that she was forcibly removed from the case by the judge and that proceedings were carried out behind closed doors.

She says she will launch an appeal against the verdict, which was delivered late on Thursday.

Correspondents say Mr Asghar is unlikely to be executed as Pakistan has had a moratorium on the death penalty since 2008.

Critics argue that Pakistan's blasphemy laws are frequently misused to settle personal scores and that members of minority groups are also unfairly targeted.

In 2012 the arrest of a young Christian girl, Rimsha, on blasphemy charges provoked international outrage. After being detained in a high security prison for several weeks she was eventually released and her family subsequently fled to Canada.

Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan, where 97% of the population are Muslim.

Muslims constitute a majority of those prosecuted, followed by the minority Ahmadi community.

“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno

A game of volleyball in eastern Afghanistan ended in tragedy after five boys were shot dead by militants.

"The young boys, who were school students, were playing volleyball in a village in Alingar district at 12.30pm ... a group of gunmenfromthe nearby village came and shot them," Sarhdai Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor of Laghman, said.

Last week 4 young footballers were killed when a rocket was fire by the Taliban at a football field in southern Kandahar. The Taliban considers sports to be un-islamic.

What the Taliban says sports grounds should be used for.

"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck

Once again I'd like to thank everyone who posts these horrific images proving once again that religion IS poison. Now while rightfully pointing out the climate of far too much of Islam in the east today, it's roots are from the same Abraham family of Christianity and Hebrew.

But all religions are poisons. I am tired of the childish kneejerk reaction by many here who rightfully do this in order to expose human cruelty, of failing to understand that it isn't that all people do this, but religion allows cover to eventually allow ENOUGH people to do this.

It isn't a matter of having a goal of the forceful end of any religion, but treating it like the volcano it is. As a human construct, it is not reason centered. Religion distorts human morality and hijacks it, to the point where it is used to justify harm to others.

You cannot remove the volcano. But religion cannot be given a pass nor should it be given a pedistal. Not just Islam, but ALL religions. Islam simply is still too widely stuck in it's own dark ages. But to say the west is free from theocratic tyranny, assumes it always will be. The only thing that can contain and maintain secular governments to always keep an eye on it and never give it a pass.

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."ObamaCheck out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under BrianJames Rational Poet also on twitter under Brianrrs37

Once again I'd like to thank everyone who posts these horrific images proving once again that religion IS poison. Now while rightfully pointing out the climate of far too much of Islam in the east today, it's roots are from the same Abraham family of Christianity and Hebrew.

But all religions are poisons. I am tired of the childish kneejerk reaction by many here who rightfully do this in order to expose human cruelty, of failing to understand that it isn't that all people do this, but religion allows cover to eventually allow ENOUGH people to do this.

It isn't a matter of having a goal of the forceful end of any religion, but treating it like the volcano it is. As a human construct, it is not reason centered. Religion distorts human morality and hijacks it, to the point where it is used to justify harm to others.

You cannot remove the volcano. But religion cannot be given a pass nor should it be given a pedistal. Not just Islam, but ALL religions. Islam simply is still too widely stuck in it's own dark ages. But to say the west is free from theocratic tyranny, assumes it always will be. The only thing that can contain and maintain secular governments to always keep an eye on it and never give it a pass.

How's it going. Look - I think if you make a statement like "all religions are poison" it's hard to carry your argument. You have to define what you consider a religion, what you consider poison.

Personally, I think some religions probably aren't really supernatural-style deity religions. And some religions aren't poisonous. If all you're doing is meditating and trying to reach a state of grace, bully for you.

You could, however, argue that monotheism, by default, leads to division, villification of unbelievers and other religions, and argues irrationally using insults, threats and violence. Such things could be described as poisonous.

I corrosively fucking hate fundamentalist intepretations of islam and christianity - especially islam. At least you can leave christianity and tell it to fuck off on the way out the door. For ex-muslims, it's a whole other thing.

Once again I'd like to thank everyone who posts these horrific images proving once again that religion IS poison. Now while rightfully pointing out the climate of far too much of Islam in the east today, it's roots are from the same Abraham family of Christianity and Hebrew.

But all religions are poisons. I am tired of the childish kneejerk reaction by many here who rightfully do this in order to expose human cruelty, of failing to understand that it isn't that all people do this, but religion allows cover to eventually allow ENOUGH people to do this.

It isn't a matter of having a goal of the forceful end of any religion, but treating it like the volcano it is. As a human construct, it is not reason centered. Religion distorts human morality and hijacks it, to the point where it is used to justify harm to others.

You cannot remove the volcano. But religion cannot be given a pass nor should it be given a pedistal. Not just Islam, but ALL religions. Islam simply is still too widely stuck in it's own dark ages. But to say the west is free from theocratic tyranny, assumes it always will be. The only thing that can contain and maintain secular governments to always keep an eye on it and never give it a pass.

Thank you for proving yet again that you are more poisonous than every religion combined.

it isn't that all people do this, but religion allows cover to eventually allow ENOUGH people to do this

and i keep asking you to give me hard data that proves any and all religions provide "cover" for atrocities that would not occur otherwise. again, you fail to pony up--and of course you do, because such data is literally impossible to come by. again, you pass off a half-baked hypothesis--and an unscientific hypothesis at that, since it is nonfalsifiable--as a cold, hard fact. then again, i doubt you know the difference. you are one of the new atheist movement's legion of pop apologists, no better than your counterparts in the evangelical movement. just like them, all you do is parrot the watered-down dreck of your media savvy, pseudointellectual idols. they have josh mcdowell, you have hitchens. fuck the both of you.

"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson